Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
The whistle comes again.
“Cliff’s Notes, Georgia.” He pulls me through the door into the small stairwell.
“Well, long story short, you’d just need to inject it, I would think. But I can’t guarantee it’s the correct dosage to actually—” I stab the air with my knife. “You know.”
His eyes twinkle. “Kill them, you mean?”
“Right. There may be another way to deliver it, possibly orally or even atomized, but I don’t know for sure. It’s a poison.”
“You can make it?” he asks. “A lot of it?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Good.” He pulls me down the stairs. “Holy shit, you realize you may have just saved us?” Without warning, he pulls me into his arms and plants a kiss on me.
I’m too startled to do anything except make an mmph noise.
When he pulls back, I just stare at him, unsure of what that was. There’s no heat in me, no pull, nothing except awkwardness.
He doesn’t seem to feel the same, a grin on his face. “I’ll see you again. Soon.” He slips out the other door.
Right before it closes, I see an emblem on his sleeve. A patch of a circle, a glowing halo with light shooting from it in all directions.
A low growl wakes me.
“What the fuck?” I yell and sit up.
“I can smell him on you.” Valen looms over me, the unnatural glow of his eyes sending a shiver along my skin. “His stink. His desire.”
“Hey!” I yank the blanket to my chin. “You should at least fucking knock!”
He prowls on top of me like a powerful cat and presses his nose to my throat. “He covets our bond.” His voice is thick, gravelly, and penetrating.
“You sound insane right now.” My voice quivers. “We don’t have a bond. We’re just—” I don’t know what we are.
“You doubt me?” He pulls back, his gaze eating me up.
“You need to leave.”
“Why?” He runs the back of his knuckles down my cheek, his touch gentle despite the violence in his voice.
“You can’t just show up here in the middle of the night and accuse me of-of-of whatever it is you’re accusing me of!”
“Not you, my Blood. Not you. The captain.” He snarls, his fangs white bone in the moonlight. “He wants you for himself.” The growl from him is even more feral, a wild animal pressed against me with murder in his eyes. “I’ll flay him and bring you whichever trinkets of his skin you’d like. An ear, perhaps?”
“What?” I gawk at him.
“Both ears?” He smiles. “My Blood is greedy for more, and I’m happy to oblige.”
“No! No, I don’t want anyone’s ears! This isn’t medieval times, okay? No flaying, no ears, no—none of that!”
“Why?”
“Are you seriously asking me why you can’t murder someone and take their ears for trophies?” I wriggle from underneath him, but he only sinks deeper between my legs, his hard cock pressing against me, sending a spark of traitorous heat through my veins. “Look, he came because I asked him to. All right?” I snap.
He blinks, then moves closer, running his fangs along my throat, my nipples tightening with his touch. “Why would you do that?”
“I needed to know more about the camps. About everything you won’t tell me. I can’t keep me or my people safe. The Saints are coming.”
He pauses, but only for the tiniest moment. “He told you this?”
I figure it’s best not to mention I saw the Saints insignia on Gage’s arm, especially considering how little I know about how he fits in with those murderous psychos. “No, well. I don’t know. Major Barker told me. He said we all have to leave the lab. Go to Atlanta where it’s safe. The Saints are going to this entire place in just a few days.”
“If they dare to attack you again, they’ll meet the same fate as their compatriots.” He hooks a clawed finger onto my blanket and eases it down.
“There are too many. A whole army of them.”
“Human armies don’t concern me. You wearing far too many clothes does.”
“Human wars don’t concern you, eh? Asshole!” I reach up to smack him in the side of the head, but he catches my hand and kisses it.
“I’m human!” I yank my hand away, and he lets me. “Me. Human.”
“I’m aware, but as I said, I’ll keep you far from harm. Human wars are meaningless affairs.”
“Because you’re busy fighting your own wars for Gregor?” I ask. “Who, by the way, maybe you should’ve mentioned is your father.”
He’s unfazed, his movements deliberate and disarming. “Does that matter? Does it change anything?”
“I mean, yes,” I say, flustered as he nuzzles against the hollow of my throat.
“Why?”
“Because …” I can’t think when his warm breath tickles my skin. “Because I can’t trust you!”
“As I said, how does that change anything? You’ve never trusted me even though I’m the only creature in this world who’s keenly interested in your survival.”